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Abstract
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have inflicted damage and insecurity on the Rwenzori region of Uganda for over a decade and, although their strength has diminished, still constitute a threat. This article argues that it is inadequate to see the ADF primarily as an internal Ugandan rebel group. Rather, the group's cross-border dimension with the Democratic Republic of the Congo should be conceptualised as a transnational phenomenon. A borderland analytic framework offers the best means of understanding the movement.
Acknowledgements
The research for this article was funded by The Round Table Commonwealth Award for Young Scholars, instituted as part of this journal's centenary celebrations.
Notes
1. Lindsay Scorgie, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, was one of the winners of The Round Table Centenary Awards for Young Scholars. See http://www.moot.org.uk/about/centenaryawards.asp
2. Interview in Kasese town with Amnesty Commission official, 13 May 2010.
3. Interview in Kampala with Ugandan conflict resolution specialist, 27 November 2009.
4. Interview in Kampala with Ugandan development worker, 24 August 2010.
5. Interview in Kampala with international aid worker, 23 April 2010.
6. Informal conversations with local residents in Kasese district, 15 September 2010.
7. The degree to which western Ugandans in the Rwenzori region and their neighbours in eastern DRC are oriented towards each other is indeed profound. Residents cross the border not just to visit relatives and friends, buy, sell and trade goods, access health and education services, or take their cattle to graze on the other side; it is also the case that during national immunisation campaigns in Uganda, those in the eastern DRC borderland are encouraged to partake, as the interaction between the cross-border populations is so intense. Focus group discussion in Kasese with local women's group, 15 September 2010; interview in Fort Portal with Ugandan researcher, 4 May 2010.
8. Informal conversations with local residents in Kasese district, 15 September 2010.
9. Interview in Kasese town with local NGO worker, 9 September 2010.
10. Informal conversations with local residents in Kabarole district, 2 May 2010.
11. Interview in Kasese town with Ugandan NGO worker and specialist on the conflict, 11 September 2010.
12. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 16 May 2010.
13. Interview in Kasese town with local NGO worker, 9 September 2010.
14. Interview in Kasese town with Ugandan NGO worker and specialist on the conflict, 11 September 2010.
15. Interview in Fort Portal with Ugandan academic, 30 April 2010.
16. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 16 May 2010 and 4 September 2010; focus group discussion in Fort Portal with local women's group, 26 August 2010.
17. Interview in Kasese town with Ugandan NGO worker and specialist on the conflict, 11 September 2010.
18. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 16 May 2010.
19. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 16 May 2010.
20. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 4 September 2010.
21. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 4 September 2010.
22. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 16 May 2010.
23. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 16 May 2010.
24. Interview in Kampala with Ugandan aid worker, 24 April 2010.
25. See, for example, Prunier (Citation2004).
26. Focus group discussion in Kasese district with ADF ex-combatants, 4 September 2010.